Work Visas in South Korea
How to get a work permit and which routes actually exist
Korea has no single work visa. It has a series of lettered employment statuses, each defined by activity: E-2 for language teaching, E-7 for specified professional occupations, E-9 for manual labour under bilateral agreements, D-8 for corporate investment and D-10 for job seeking. Which one applies is determined by the job, not by the applicant's general qualifications.
| Teaching route | E-2, requires a degree from a country where the language is native source |
| Professional route | E-7, occupation must appear on the published list source |
| Manual labour route | E-9 Employment Permit System, bilateral agreements only source |
| Job seeking | D-10, commonly up to six months and extendable |
| Investment route | D-8, corporate investment with a minimum capital threshold |
The lettered statuses, and what each is for
- E-2 (foreign language instruction). The largest single professional entry route. It commonly requires a bachelor's degree and citizenship of a country where the language taught is spoken natively, plus a criminal record check and a health check. It is tied to one school or institute.
- E-7 (specially designated activities). The main skilled professional status. Immigration publishes a long list of occupation codes — engineers, designers, IT specialists, researchers, cooks of specified cuisines, technicians — and an application must match one code. Salary conditions apply, commonly benchmarked against Korean gross national income per capita, with the required multiple varying by sub-category.
- E-9 (non-professional employment). Manual work in manufacturing, agriculture, fisheries and construction under the Employment Permit System, open only to nationals of countries that have signed a memorandum of understanding with Korea, and allocated by annual quota.
- D-8 (corporate investment). For those investing in and operating a Korean company, with a published minimum capital contribution and evidence that the business genuinely trades.
- D-10 (job seeking). A preparatory status for graduates and qualified professionals to look for work or prepare a start-up, commonly issued for six months at a time.
- E-1 to E-6. Narrower categories covering professors, foreign language conversation, research, technical instruction, professionals such as licensed practitioners, and arts and entertainment.
How E-7 works in practice
E-7 is where most skilled migration happens, and it is the most conditional status in the system. The employer applies for a certificate of confirmation of visa issuance on the applicant's behalf, naming the occupation code and the salary.
Three conditions do most of the refusing. The occupation must map onto a listed code, and a job that is genuinely skilled but not on the list cannot be approved under a neighbouring code. The salary must meet the threshold for that sub-category, which is expressed as a proportion of gross national income per capita and is revised periodically. And the employer must satisfy a ratio limiting foreign staff relative to Korean employees, which small firms frequently fail.
The status is tied to the employer. Changing jobs requires a report to and permission from immigration, and moving to a different occupation code is treated as a new application rather than an amendment.
The Employment Permit System for manual labour
E-9 sits outside the professional system entirely. It is a government-to-government scheme run by the Ministry of Employment and Labour: partner countries administer a Korean language test and a roster, Korean employers who have advertised locally without success draw from that roster, and the annual intake is fixed by quota.
Employment is tied to the workplace, with transfers permitted only in defined circumstances. Total permitted stay commonly runs to roughly four years and ten months, extendable in certain cases, and long service in a shortage occupation can open a route to a skilled status and eventually to residence.
What tends to go wrong
- Applying under an occupation code that does not match the actual duties, which immigration checks against the employment contract.
- A degree unrelated to the occupation claimed, where the E-7 rules generally expect either a relevant degree or several years of directly relevant experience.
- Employers unfamiliar with the foreign staff ratio, discovering only at application stage that they cannot sponsor.
- Beginning work before the status is changed or the alien registration card is issued, which is treated as unauthorised employment.
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Official sources
- Korea Immigration Service, visa categories
- Hi Korea, application procedures
- Ministry of Employment and Labour
Checked against these pages in September 2026. Fees and processing times change without notice — confirm before you act.